Studying satellite radar data from ESA’s Envisat and the Italian Space Agency’s COSMO-SkyMed, scientists have begun analysing the movement of Earth during and after the 6.3 earthquake that shook the medieval town of L’Aquila in central Italy on 6 April 2009.

 
Where do birds get their red feathers from?
According to Esther del Val, from the National History Museum in Barcelona, Spain, and her team, the red carotenoids that give the common crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) its red coloration are produced in the liver, not the skin, as previously thought.

 
Grandpa? Is that You?
The Neanderthals inhabited a vast geographical area extending from Europe to western Asia and the Middle East 30,000 to 100,000 years ago. Now, a group of researchers are questioning whether or not the Neanderthals constituted a homogenous group or separate sub-groups (between which slight differences could be observed).

 
Signals From Stroking Skin Have Direct Route To Brain
Nerve signals that tell the brain that we are being slowly stroked on the skin have their own specialised nerve fibres in the skin. This is shown by a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy in Sweden. The discovery may explain why touching the skin can relieve [...]

Researchers have uncovered new evidence suggesting factors other than genes could cause obesity, finding that genetically identical cells store widely differing amounts of fat depending on subtle variations in how cells process insulin.

 
“All you have to do is climb a tall building in Germany, and you’re going to see green roofs all over the place.”
Many countries like Germany (pictured) and Switzerland are now mandating that all new buildings with flat roofs must plant a garden on them. What will cities look like when this practice becomes the [...]

Ultra-cold strontium atoms in an atomic clock  
Perfect timekeeping has taken a step closer to reality after scientists developed a clock that loses just a second every 300 million years.

Babcock Ranch, Florida 
What better place than the Sunshine State for the world’s first solar-powered city? Called Babcock Ranch, the 17,000-acres-large community will have its energy needs supplied by a $300 million, 75 megawatt solar-powered generator. The city will also integrate a Smart Grid for powering electric vehicles. (Pics)

 
Miniature Art
There’s something sort of magical about miniatures, especially when they’re strikingly lifelike. The artists who create these tiny wonders look at life from a different scale than the rest of us, and their work often requires intense patience, concentration and a steady hand. From sculptures too small to be seen by the naked eye [...]

Even the mouse gets a dose of high def.

Whatever you plan to do with your computer, there is usually a peripheral made just for the task. If you want to game there are a myriad of gaming mice on the market and if you just want to do boring old computer work, there are peripherals [...]

Cute but tough to cuddle with.

Displayed for the first time in a specially constructed studio in South Carolina, these images show the four varieties of Bengal tiger.
“There are only four distinct types of Bengal tiger in the world and they are all in this amazing photo shoot,” says Dr Bhagavan Antle of The Institute of [...]

Flaunting the empty pocket blues?

Buying lots of new things seems to be going out of fashion.
It’s not hard to see why – you can’t spend what you don’t have. And while we’d always advocate shelling out for the best-quality, well-priced (i.e. not super-cheap) products, there’s another way to get exactly what you want on a [...]

Just enough memory to hang ya.

When you are looking for the next special way to “plug in” you may want to check out the new USB necktie and impress that special geek friend you have been looking to one up.
However, don’t get too excited over this classy white USB necktie, since it doesn’t appear to be [...]